The Book Business as an Indie requires investing. I was very excited to be in the biggest book fair in the world….L.A. Times Festival of Books. It was my first. And it hurt a bit like “the first time,” but slightly left of center. (In my pocket.) Because my book is 412 pages with pictures, it costs a lot to print it, so there is not much room for “profit” at 20 bucks a book.

This is how a book fair works if you are at all interested. You have to shell out a ridiculous amount of money for your booth. There were over 1,000 authors there with hopes that their story will be read by anyone walking by. (And purchased, of course!)

I, on the other hand, of course shooed away the children. “This book isn’t for you….it’s for Mommy and Daddy!”

Apparently, there is a large children’s section. I kind of cringed when a kid read my title and started giggling.

So, for 1,250 dollars, you can be in your stall, kind of like those prostitutes posing in windows in Amsterdam. I turned about 25 tricks a day. Not bad for a cold call. Unfortunately I would have had to sell a shitload more of books to actually make a profit. (At least I shared the booth with fellow Grammy member, author Jim Berkenstadt, “The Rock and Roll Detective,” who wrote ,“The Beatle Who Vanished”, about the missing one time drummer, Jimmy Nicol.) His book has an Amazon Best Seller sticker. So, I decided to add a sticker to “Who the F$&# Is Linda Chorney!”

People asked me a million questions about the book. After a while I started losing my voice, and said, “Just read the back, and then I’ll answer your questions”. It was exhausting. It was fun, but it was work!

Believe it or not, I kind of thought the point of having a booth at a book fair was to make a profit.

But I learned the point is to get the word out. There were many writers, reviewers, and Hollywood types looking for new ideas for a movie. Well, here I am! Cameron Crowe did not appear, but I got a few leads on him! And I gave him a shout out on all radio programs I did.

I began filming the documentary…”Making the Book a Movie”. (I am not sold on that title.)

Day one of shooting was at NPR studios! I am so excited to finally have the press hear my story…the real story, including the big ending. (I won’t spoil it for you.)

And if you have read the book, there is also a chapter where Lucinda William’s producer, Eric Liljestrand, shows up at my performance in L.A. before the Grammys. After the show we talked about working together in the future…and the future became the present last week!

We wrote a song together, and recorded it at his studio. It was a blast, and not only is he a Grammy award winning Producer, but also a kick ass songwriter, guitarist, bass player, engineer, and singer! The song is called “Optimistic”. It was inspired by all of the crazy shit going on in the world, and fortunately, Eric and I have a similar view. (My heart goes out to Boston.)

There was a moment where he said he heard similarities of Chrissie Hynde, Anne Murray and Karen Carpenter, in my voice, in the middle of comping my vocals. I turned and said to him, “I’m only going to say this once for the record, even if it is defensive. What really bothered my about taking all of that shit for my nomination is that I can sing.”

He said, “I know you can. Now move forward and make another great record.”

So, that’s also what I did in L.A. I finished three more tracks for the album, while also promoting my book for whoever would listen to my story, while filming my documentary, searching for the missing….Cameron Crowe.

Sure, I’m still open to Scorsese or Sandra Bullock’s own production company. Call me!

The good news…and bad news? I now have a few leftover books, (40) of the First Edition – Limited edition writer’s cut, before I go to print on the corrected, less fucked up version, where the 92 typos have been corrected…such as “taken a back”, referring to cymbals as symbols, calling the FAA the FCC, an aisle an isle, and a few extra apostrophes. It is the collectors item if you want to snag one, to highlight what a dumb ass I am. But if you do read the book, (my last defense of the careless typos) I had to get the book out ASAP because of the ending! AHHHH!